Moore's Logbook
It was great to have returned to Allura and the others, and it turned out that everyone else had a wild adventure too.
Lance and Hunk had an adventure similar to mine and RC's. They landed on a water planet and saved a kingdom of mermaid aliens from a parasitic alien lifeform that was controlling them. Pidge was stranded on a cluster of debris floating around in space. With the help of some cute little aliens, she built a communication device to contact the ship.
Keith and Shiro landed on a baron planet and were attacked by wild animals. Shiro was injured badly and was placed in the healing pod. Now we just have to wait.
"Shiro's Escape"
Marcus was in his quarters, sleeping deeply, when someone entered his room. It didn't wake him up until a soft hand was placed on his shoulder. The hand shook his shoulder, and Marcus opened his eyes to see Allura sitting on the edge of the bed. Looking at him with a look of concern.
"Allura? What's going on?" Marcus asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"I wanted to check up on you," she said, concerned. "But when I searched the ship, you were anywhere. I started to grow worried."
"Sorry. I wanted to get some sleep. How are you doing?" He sat on the edge of the bed with her. His armor was off, and he was only in his red clothing.
"I'm well now that everyone's back together again," Allura sighed with a smile. Her hands together on her lap.
"Physically, you're okay. You're still thinking about what I told you," Marcus stated, knowing that it was likely still bothering her. When he told them about Krolia, the member of the Blade of Marmora that saved him, they were surprised as well. Allura the most, but she was also upset. Asking how he could have trusted him. Allura looked at him as her smile was lost, and she looked down at her hands. Ashamed of how she acted with him. Marcus placed a hand on hers. "Allura, I didn't know Krolia was a Galran, and I didn't have much of a choice."
"I understand, and I don't blame you. I'm sorry. It's just…" Allura paused as she looked down at her hands that were in her lap. They clenched into a tight fight as she glared at them. "The Galra have destroyed my home and hundreds of worlds. They've butchered millions and threaten many more lives in the universe. I just can't believe that…"
"There are good ones out there, right?" Marcus asked, already knowing what she was thinking. It was obvious that she would have mixed feelings about Galrans being on their side. Many IMC soldiers that defected to the Militia were treated as outcasts due to their involvement with the company that caused nothing but pain and misery for the Frontier. Even he and his family were outcast for being immigrants from Earth. "No, it's okay. But there's an old saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' If the Blade of Marmora is against Zarkon..."
"Marcus, can we talk about something else," Allura interrupted him with a sigh, looking at him with a stern look that was begging for him not to continue talking about the subject.
The Pilot looked at her for a moment before sighing and nodding his head. But there was still something that Allura had to know. "Allura. Who was the Black Lion's Paladin?" He asked her with a serious expression.
Allura looked up at him with a confused expression. "Shiro is, of course," she said.
"But is he really? What if Paladins from the past still have control of the Lions in the present?" Marcus asked.
"What are you saying, Marcus?" asked Allura, starting to grow concerned about where this conversation was going.
"...I think Zarkon was the Black Paladin."
Allura stared at him with horrified eyes. How did he know?
Suddenly there was a beaming coming from Marcus' communicator earpiece. Grabbing it, he slipped it around his ear and answered the transmission. "Moore here."
"Marcus, where's Allura?" Keith asked on the other line.
"She's with me in my room," Marcus said, glancing at the princess next to him.
"What's the princess doing in your room?" Lance butted in, behind Keith pushed him away.
"Lance, moving over!"
Allura placed her hand on her right earring. Activating the communication device in them. "I'm here, everyone. What's the matter?"
"It's Shiro. Something's up with him."
Marcus and Allura wasted no time and got off the bed. The Pilot grabbed his helmet before exiting the room. Walking together, they entered the med bay, where the others were waiting for them. Coran was with them, standing at the control panel that monitored Shiro's vitals and health. The Paladins were standing around Shiro's pod as their leader floated inside of it. But Shiro was groaning in his sleep. He seemed in distress, and his whole face contorting in pain. Sweat forming on his face.
Marcus walked over to the others, and Allura went to Coran. "Is he okay?" The Pilot asked, turning to the princess and her advisor.
"Sometimes, the healing process can cause involuntary brain wave reactions," Allura told him and the other humans.
"He looks like he's having a bad dream," Hunk said, looking at the former Titan Pilot.
"He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards. What dream could be worse than that?" Keith questioned with his arms crossed. Looking at Shiro with worry.
Marcus sighed and stood where he was, watching Shiro in the pod. The man twitched lightly for a few more minutes. And then it all came to an end when Shiro opened his eyes slowly. This brought everyone rushing over to stand in front of the pod.
As they all breathed a sigh of relief, Keith opened the pod. Shiro was about to fall out when Keith and Marcus quickly went and caught him. "Easy, Shiro," the Red Paladin said, as the two friends helped him sit down on the steps of the med bay.
"I'm okay," Shiro insisted.
"You just came out of the pod after being injured," Pidge said.
Shiro let out a sigh and rubbed his face with his prosthetic arm. He then stopped and looked at his hand. Frowning at the hand that the Galra gave him after kidnapping him.
"Shiro? Are you okay?" Allura asked, looking at the Black Paladin worriedly.
Shiro clenched his fist and looked up. "I just remembered how I escaped."
Dressed in his usual attire, Shiro was sitting in Pidge's lab with the rest of the team gathered around him. He relayed to them his tale, which only came back to him when he was in the healing pod.
He told them about how a Galran named Ulaz had broken him out of the Galra prison ship after being outfitted with the prosthetic arm. Then the turncoat alien gave Shiro a set of coordinates in his metal arm. Saying that it would lead him to a place where they could find potential allies. Saying that the Blade of Marmora was with him.
Now confirming that there were other Galra out in the universe a part of the secret organization, Marcus wanted to know where the coordinates led towards, and so did Shiro. Pidge had the Black Paladin's arm plugged into her computer, and she analyzed it for the coordinates.
"I'm not finding any coordinates in here. Are you sure this wasn't just a dream?" Pidge asked after a while of scanning through the arm.
"I'm positive. Someone helped me escape," Shiro responded.
"And you're sure that he said 'Blade of Marmora?'" Marcus asked, with his arms crossed.
"Positive. Just like the woman that helped you, right?" Shiro stated.
"And he was Galra?" Allura retaliated with anger in her voice.
"Yes."
"You know you cannot trust them," she said.
"Perhaps it is you…" RC said, walking into the lab and stared down at Allura. Reaching over her back, she pulled out the Chaingun and held it in her hands. Though she couldn't express emotions, the Titan was glaring down at Allura, and the princess felt it. "...That cannot be trusted."
"RC, what are you doing?" Marcus asked cautiously, getting in front of Allura. The others were also surprised and a little scared by the Titan's aggressive move.
"You say that the Galra can't be trusted, but your father placed his trust in one of them. And that Galran was Zarkon." Allura froze at this statement and looked at the floor. Marcus looked at her, as did the others. Allura didn't know what to say and held a look of frustration. "It's the only reason that he stole the Black Lion from Shiro. It's the reason he was armed with Shiro's bayard. Zarkon was the original Black Paladin, wasn't he?"
There was a moment of silence. As he stared at the princess, Marcus started to piece together why she wasn't looking up at them. Why she wasn't trying to defend herself and say something that would dispel what RC was saying, and his Titan's last question just confirmed what he was thinking.
"You knew, didn't you," he said.
Allura looked up at him and was about to say something when the RC said, "Don't lie to my Pilot, Princess Allura. I'll know."
Allura, no longer able to hide it anymore, let out a sigh. "That was a long time ago."
Marcus stared at her with a look of disbelief that turned to frustration. "Why didn't you just tell us the truth about Zarkon?"
"I did it to protect all of you," Allura answered, looking back at the ground. "I wanted to protect you from the dark history of the paladins so that you would have a chance to bond with your lions on your own. Shiro's the Black Paladin now, not Zarkon."
"Yeah, well, the Black Lion may have a different take on the matter," Shiro said, looking down.
Just as the stress in the air was becoming too much, Pidge's computer started beeping. "Wait a second. I think I see it now—" she said, causing the other to look at her as the Green Paladin typed on her computer. "Some repeating numbers in all this Galra code. Let me extract it."
Typing on her keyboard quickly, Pidge was able to extract the numbers and jumble them together. The numbers were then transferred onto a bigger screen above them, and the team stared up at it with wide eyes. The numbers were the coordinates, and they led to a separate star system from where they were located.
"They are coordinates!" Pidge said. "They lead here: the Thaldycon system."
"Then, that's where we're headed," Shiro said
"Shiro, are you sure you can trust this," Keith asked his leader with a look of skepticism. "I mean, after all the Galra has done to you. They took your arm."
"What choice do we really have?" Marcus asked with a stern move. "Zarkon has a universe of ships and robots, and all of them have their guns pointed at our balls. Even if we form Voltron, he'll just break your robot apart again and again. If we can locate some allies in our fight, especially ones from Zarkon's own side, we might just find a way to take him down."
"Marcus is right," Shiro said, turning Keith's attention to him. "Someone helped me escape. We need more allies."
Allura looked down at the ground for a moment with her arms crossed. "We can check the location, but I do not like this. The Galra are not to be trusted," Allura said.
Near the coordinates, a wormhole opened up, and the Castleship came through on the other side. In front of the ship was a large cluster of large crystals floating around in space. It formed a massive wall that was taller than any capital ship in the Militia and the IMC that stretched for miles.
"Well, this is it. No sign of any activity at all, living or otherwise," Coran said as the others on the bridge stared up at the formation with awe.
"Can we get in there to take a closer look?" Shiro asked in his Paladin seat.
"I don't want to bring the Castle any closer. Those xanthorium chunks contain highly unstable nitrate salts. Even bumping one of them can blow us straight to Wozblay," the advisor told the leader of the team. Marcus didn't know what a Wozblay was, but it didn't sound good.
"Are you sure this is right?"
"These are the coordinates Number Five gave me."
"Hey! My decryption is solid," Pidge yelled from her seat.
"There must be something we're missing," Shiro said, really believing that there was something here.
"We should get out of here," Allura said. "We've checked it out, but now, it's time to move on."
"No. There must be something more to this," Shiro said. "I can feel it. I think we should wait."
Marcus thought for a moment before turning to the older Altean man on the bridge. "Coran, can you do a thorough scan of the crystal cluster?" Marcus asked, standing in front of the princess with his arms crossed. "Maybe there's something here that Shiro's rescuor is trying to hide."
"There's nothing here, though. I can't pick up anything…" Coran's sentence came to a pause when his screen pulled up a notification. Marcus couldn't read Altean, but it seemed important from the look on the man's facet. "Wait...Yes, I'm picking up something."
But before he could explain what it was, another screen popped up as red lights flashed inside the room, and the alarms rang.
"There's an intruder in the Castle!" Coran shouted.
"RC! Have you detected anyone coming in?" Marcus asked his Titan on the radio.
"Negative! But I'm detecting only one inside the ship."
"How could someone just sneak aboard the ship?" Lance asked.
"I knew coming here was a mistake!" Allura exclaimed, pulling up her screen and activating smaller ones that show the ship's multiple rooms and hallways. She scanned the screen before seeing one that had a black figure running down the hallway. "There he is. Level five."
"We'll cut him off there!" Marcus said, running out of the bridge to go after the intruder.
"Everyone, suit up," Shiro said to the others.
With his armor on, Marcus was running down the halls to level 5. The Pilot was armed with the Alternator with HCOG, in case the intruder was hostile and needed to be put down.
"Shiro, I got him," Lance said on the radio. Marcus loaded the gun and ran to Lance's position.
"Keep eyes on him, Lance. We're all headed toward you," Shiro said. Marcus turned the corner and arm down his weapon. No one was here, so he continued on.
"Careful, he's faster than an angry klanmuirl! But he can jump like a sprightly globinheffer!" Coran commented like he was a sports commentator.
"Coran, shut the hell up!" Lance yelled back
"Somebody's as mad as a wet chuper. Coming your way, Number Five!" Coran said, before coming back with this information. "He's dragging Pidge away!"
Marcus stopped at an intersection of hallways. He pulled up his screen to show the interior of the ship and where his teammate was. If the intruder was dragging Pidge, then she could was where they were at. On his map, he saw Katie's green pinpoint moving down the halls of the ship.
Figuring the best way to catch this guy was to cut him off, the Pilot radioed his small friend. "Pidge! Don't let go! I'll cut him off!"
"Please hurry!" Pidge said. Marcus started running down another hallway. With his faster speed, Marcus ran down the halls to cut off the intruder. Finally arriving, he came to a stop in the middle of a hallway and stood facing one direction.
A moment later, the intruder came rushing down the halls with the Green Paladin being dragged behind him. The intrude wasn't human and had an outfit that he's never seen before. A grey bodysuit with a hood, and armor covering the legs, shoulders, torso, and arms. The biceps, waist, and trachea are left exposed. The chestplate tapers into an inverted triangle and ends at the pelvis. The armored places were sealed around the bodysuit - the wrists, top of the biceps - are accented in blue. The chest and faceplate have glowing parallel lines on them. He had ribbed blue shoulder pads connected at the front to his chestplate and at the back to his dagger sheath. And lastly, he had on a brown utility belt.
Afraid he would hit Pidge if he missed a single shout, Marcus pulled out his special Data Knife and activated the energy blade. When the intruder came right at him, the Pilot tried to strike at his shoulder. He swatted Marcus' knife away, and then kicked his feet out from under him. Marcus would have fallen onto his back, and the intruder would have run off, but the Pilot boost jumped and landed back on his feet.
Looking to the walls, Marcus smirked under his helmet. He started running after the intruder before boost jumping onto the castle walls and started wall running and hopping from one side to the next.
This gave him the speed that he needed to catch up with the intruder and with Pidge out of the way. He had a clean shot. Marcus opened fire. 10mm rounds fired out of the twin barrels at a fire rate of 60 rps. But the intruder dodged them all. Moving and flipping around to dodge each of his rounds.
When he was out, Marcus looked down at Pidge. Looking up at him, she nodded. The Green Paladin then put her feet on the ground to stop herself. The intruder was still running, then stopped for a brief second and turned around to see Marcus jumping down at him.
Dropping his gun, Marcus used his jump kit to fly down at the intruder and tried to stand his head.
But the attack was stopped when the intruder grabbed the sword on his back and pulled it out slightly. Blocking the attack with the flat side of the blade. Marcus tried to push down with all his might, but then, his eyes widened when he saw the glowing symbol on the handguard.
It was the same symbol of the Blade of Marmora.
"That symbol…"
However, his moment of hesitation was all it took for the intruder to kick him in the stomach and send him into the wall.
That's when Keith came out of nowhere and tried to hit the intruder with his own sword. But the intruder pulled it his sword and blocked the attack. Just like Marcus, Keith hesitated when he too saw the symbol on the blade. The intruder knocked Keith's bayard out of his hand.
Keith grunted in frustration before trying to punch the intruder, only for the member of the Blade to yank Pidge's line and send her crashing into Keith.
With both Paladins down, Marcus launched himself with the jump kit at the intruder. The intruder noticed this and dodged Marcus' kick. The Pilot flipped in the air and landed on his foot and knee before standing to his feet.
And instead of attacking, he stood there for a moment. "Alright, let's all just take a deep breath and calm down," he said, trying to defuse the situation. He deactivated the Data Knife's and sheathed it. "You're with the Blade of Marmora, right?"
This seemed the catch the intruder's attention for a moment. But then he heard the sound of Shiro's arms activating. He turned around and faced the former Pilot, and Shiro shot out his arm and hovered it over the intruder's neck and under his chin. The Galran hovered his blade over Shiro's head.
Marcus watched the two for a tense few seconds, reaching down for his Smart Pistol to draw it the moment the Galran did anything to warrant him to shoot him.
However, the intruder slowly backed off and lowered his weapon. Standing straight in a nonthreatening manner. Marcus walked around to the side of the Galran, hand still on his holstered Smart Pistol.
The intruder pulled back his hood and his mask dematerialized.
Revealing a Galran with ashy purple skin. However, his face was dominated by a paler, lavender shade. He had small yellow eyes, flyaway white eyebrows, high cheekbones, and an elongated jaw. His ears were stubby and elf-like, and his hair was styled in a low Mohawk.
When Shiro saw the Galran, his eyes widened and deactivated his arm. "Ulaz?"
Suddenly, Allura pushed past Shiro, grabbed Ulaz by the front of his armor, and slammed him against the wall. Glaring at the alien with furious anger as she pushed him against the wall. "Who are you?"
"Allura! Stand down!" Marcus yelled, rushing over and yanking her hand away. "He's not the enemy."
"And how would you know?" Allura asked angrily, yanking her wrist away from Marcus' grasp.
"Just look at the symbol on his sword." Marcus pointed at the sword and the glowing symbol on it. "It's the same one from the Galran that saved us from Zarkon."
"Marcus is right," Shiro said, walking over to the Galran. "He's not a threat. He's the Galra who set me free."
Ulaz looked at Shiro and said, "You've come."
Even though Ulaz wouldn't attack them and was an ally, Allura didn't trust him. Not after he had attacked the others, despite not harming them too much. They and the other team members were in the lounging area, where Allura had Ulaz's wrists and ankles cuffed as he sat down on the middle couch.
"I don't think this is necessary," Shiro said as his savior sat in silence.
"I will not have some quiznak-ing Galra soldier on the bridge of my ship!" Allura said, glaring at Ulaz. Marcus looked at her with a surprised expression.
"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already," Ulaz told the princess, really not helping his situation.
"Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?" Allura demanded.
"I'm not trying to win your trust. I'm trying to win a war," Ulaz told the princess, looking up to look at the human he saved. "And, because of Shiro, we are closer than we've ever been. Our gamble on you paid off better than we could have ever imagined."
"When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you," Shiro said, changing the subject.
"Yes. We are called the Blade of Marmora," Ulax explained.
"Uh, others? Are they here," asked Hunk with a fearfully, yet hopeful voice. Which earned the disapproval of Lance
"Do you ever get tired of bitching, Hunk?" asked the resident of Victor.
"Do you guys ever get tired of busting my balls?" Hunk countered.
"...Point taken."
"I am alone on this base," Ulaz answered after the banter had ended.
"What is this base you're talking about? Shiro's coordinates just led us to this wasteland," Allura said.
"The base is hidden. Now that I know it is Shiro that has come, you are welcome to our outpost. It lies dead ahead."
"Behind all the xanthorium clusters," asked Marcus, confused when told about the location.
"No. Right in front of it, in a hidden pocket of space-time."
The Pilot was impressed. One of humanity's greatest achievements was to be able to travel faster-than-light. It was made possible when scientists had discovered a method of folding space and time to make interstellar travel possible. If the Blade had bases with space-time folding capabilities, then they could remain hidden from the Empire.
"RC?" Marcus called to his Titan to see if she could detect any signs of lying from the Galran.
"He is telling the truth. It's likely the anomaly detected by the ship is the gateway into the hidden pocket."
Still not believing what the Galran was telling them, Allura snapped her head to the Pilot. "Or he's just fooling you. Coran, are you hearing this?" She shouted through the speakers
"I'm still picking up some kind of anomaly on the screen. I suppose it could be a cloaked base."
"Just fly straight for the center of the xanthorium cluster. You will see," Ulaz assured them.
"You think you're going to get me to destroy our ship just because you say so?" Allura questioned with anger in her voice.
"Allura, I believe he's telling the truth," Marcus said, walking up next to her.
"How can you trust this Galran, Marcus? He may be leading us into a trap!" Allura said, looking at the Titan Paladin with wide eyes filled with disbelief.
"And what if you're wrong?" Marcus asked. Silencing the princess.
"We came out here to find some answers. Are we going to turn back now?" Shiro asked, determined.
At that moment, Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk felt it was best to speak up. The Red Paladin was the first to talk uneasily. "You know I trust you and Marcus, Shiro, but this doesn't feel right."
"And you know I hate to agree with Keith, but it's a big fat fucking ditto for me," Lance said with his arms crossed.
"Galra could have implanted fake memories of the escape in your head," Pidge theorized.
"Oh, come on, that would be so evil, which, of course, they are," Hunk said, trying and failing to come to his two friends' defense. "But they'd have to come up with some molecular level storage unit, which his hand does have. But, to be linked up to memory, it would need a direct pathway to his brain, which...yeah."
Marcus let out a frustrated sigh before putting on his helmet. "Then I'll go," he said, before turning and making his way to the door of the room.
"You can't be serious," Allura said with wide eyes.
"I'm not asking for permission to go!" Marcus stopped and turned to everyone in the room. Scowling behind his visors. "Ulaz freed Shiro. My friend. Without him, we wouldn't be here. But, if you all still don't believe him, then I'll go through first. RC and I will go through the pocket and come out the other side, and then you all come in after me."
"But what if it's a trap?" Allura walked over to him, trying to change his mind. "What if this Galran…"
"Allura," Marcus stopped her and placed his hands on her shoulders. She looked into the blue visors of the Pilot's helmet. "Do you trust me?"
"Always." Allura didn't hesitate with her answer.
"Then trust me on this."
This time she did hesitate, but after she looked down at the ground for a moment in silence, she sighed and nodded.
A couple of minutes later, RC was flying out of the Castleship and speeding towards the cluster of floating crystals. When he neared them, Marcus pulled to a stop just meters away from the first xanthorium crystal. He broadcasted his Titan's camera feed to the castle so that everyone onboard could watch.
"Alright, I'm at the cluster," Marcus said nervously. However, he steeled his nerves and had his Titan reach out with her arm. "Hold onto your butts." Everyone held their breaths as the robot's arm reached out towards the crystal. One of two things will happen: Marcus and RC will be going through a pocket in space and time or will be destroyed in a massive explosion.
But just as Marcus touched the crystal, the world around them was consumed in a flash of bright light as they were sucked into a wormhole of bright lights and energy. Colors flashed by in strands, guiding the Pilot to a rough circle of white in the center.
"HOLY CRAP!" Marcus shouted in total astonishment. "Are you guys seeing this!?"
"We are…" Coran muttered on the bridge. Eyes widened too. As for the others, they watched on the screen in the lounging room. Amazed as well.
"Amazing. This is just like the folding technology back home," Pidge gaped. "Folding space and time to travel across the galaxy."
Marcus flew forward at top speed until he reached the end. When he and RC were engulfed in a flash of bright light, they exited the wormhole. Marcus pulled RC to a stop and looked with amazement at a space station of some kind. It had a ring with a cone formed at the front, windows decorating the sides. Behind it was what resembled a pair of jaws.
"Ulaz, what am I looking at exactly," Marcus asked as he floated in space.
"Welcome to the Blade of Marmora Communications Base Thaldycon," Ulaz explained to Marcus on the ship. He then stood up and turned back to look at the team. "Now, if you'll free me and follow your friend, I need to send a message to the leadership. They need to know I've made contact with Voltron."
"His story checks out. Do it, Allura." Marcus said on the ship's intercoms.
Allura sighed and turned her head up slightly to look at the ceiling. "Ahead full, Coran." As the ship entered the wormhole, Allura turned to Shiro. "When we reach the other side, I want you to go with him and keep an eye on him. I'm staying here."
"Oh! Can we go?" Hunk asked.
Big, shiny, yellow stars instantly lit up in Pidge's eyes as she exclaimed, "I want to see how they make the space pocket!"
"You guys go ahead. I'll hang back and protect the princess," Lance said with a smirk and his hands on his hips.
"Ugh," Allura groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Yes, because women with superhuman strength and combat training total need a cadet that barely qualifies as a cargo pilot," Marcus said with a smirk. Allura giggled with a fist to her mouth to hide it. Trying to continue showing professionalism. The team chuckled as Lance blushed in embarrassment.
"I detect sarcasm."
When the Red Lion came out of the castle, Marcus followed behind it in RC. The two robots flew towards the base next to one another.
"This is the gravity generator that creates the space-time fold that hides the station," Ulaz explained, pointing to the generator as it produced a long line of electricity that powered the station. He was inside the Red Lion with Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge. Keith was, of course, with them. Piloting the Lion. "It was created by a reclusive genius engineer named Slav. His technology allows the Blade of Marmora to remain hidden while we work to take down the Galra Empire. Zarkon would do anything to get his hands on this technology."
"There are Galra out there that aren't loyal to Zarkon," Keith asked.
Marcus pulled RC up alongside the giant Lion's head. "Well, if there were Germans that weren't Nazis during WW2, why can't there be Galrans that don't like Zarkon?"
"Huh. You know, you've got a good point there," Hunk stated.
"We thought expanding the Galra Empire would bring stability," Ulaz explained to the team. "We learned too late; a tyrant doesn't seek stability, only power."
Once they were inside the base, Ulaz began typing on the holographic screen. Keith was staring out of a large window. Watching the two streams of energy intersecting. "With our members working on the inside, planning coordinated attacks with Voltron, we may finally have a chance," Ulaz explained to the teams.
Keith came walking towards them. "So, you have agents working within Zarkon's ranks?" Hunk asked.
"Don't you remember that one Galran that powered down the barrier?" Marcus asked his friend.
Ulaz turned to look at the team. "It's the only reason you got away from Zarkon in that last fight. Did you think those shields around Zarkon's command center would just go down on their own without our agent's help? We've got people risking their lives in this war, just like you."
This got Pidge's attention away from the technology around her. "If you have people on the inside, can they tell me where my family is?" She asked with hopeful eyes. Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder as a gesture of support. "They were taken the same time Shiro was."
"I knew others from Earth were captured. I never saw them, but I have some records of Galra prisoners here. I can transmit them to your ship," Ulaz explained to the young girl before turning back to holoscreen to do just that. But it did little to put her at ease.
Keith looked at the Galran's weapon and raised an eyebrow. "What's that weapon you carry?"
Unsheathing the sword from his back, Ulaz held it out to Keith. "It's a ceremonial blade that each member of our order carries."
Keith narrowed his eyes on the blade. More specifically, the symbol glowing on it. "Hmm, nice," he said, looking up at him.
Suddenly alarms started going off inside the base.
The holoscreen pulled up another screen showing the xanthorium crystals. However, the computer highlighted something coming. It was a ship.
"Oh, no!" Ulaz whirled around to look furious at the Paladins. "You were tracked!
"What? Us?" Pidge asked in disbelief.
"If Zarkon knows we're here, it's because you ratted us out," Keith said angrily.
The ship was coming towards the cluster at an extremely fast rate before suddenly turning on its front. Marcus' eyes widened with horror when he saw it was another one of those ships that transported Zarkon's obeast. The ship broke apart, and from it came a bulky machine hovering on a single engine. It was larger than Voltron, with two long arms with three dexterous claws on each hand. Its face largely took up the Robeast's body. It had yellow eyes, thick eyebrows, and protruding lower teeth.
"It's another one of Zarkon's robot...beast...ro-beasts!" Hunk exclaimed.
"We have to get back to the ship," Shiro said.
"Shiro, wait," Ulaz said before taking out a small device. "These are instructions on how to reach the Blade of Marmora headquarters. Before you go there, find out how Zarkon is tracking you. If you lead him there, our entire underground network, everything we've spent centuries building, will be lost."
"I knew he could not be trusted!" Allura shouted on his screen as Marcus hovered close to the ship. As the others returned to the ship to get into their Lions, Marcus waited to further orders.
"It wasn't him," Marcus said. "Somehow, Zarkon's tracking us."
"How can you be sure?" Allura questioned.
"It doesn't matter now. What should we do?" Coran interrupted.
"Why can't we hide here in the space clam and wait for it to go away?" Hunk asked. He and the others were still in the Red Lion's head.
"Everyone get to your lions, but don't launch," Shiro ordered the team. "We'll wait to see what it does. I don't want to risk fighting it if we don't have to." Marcus nodded and looked back at his screen, showing the Robeast. After what happened the last time they went up against one of Zarkon's wonder weapons, he too wasn't looking forward to battling another one.
The Robeast flew towards them and then stopped. It scanned across some of the xanthorium clusters, trying to find the Castle of Lions.
"We should be safe as long as we're hidden in the space pocket," Pidge reported over the intercom.
But just then, the Robeast opened its mouth. A glowing pink void activated inside its mouth, and it started sucking in some of the crystals.
"He's drawing in the xanthorium clusters!" Coran exclaimed with a scared look.
Once the giant robot was done consuming crystals from the cluster, it closed its mouth only for a moment. But then, it fired a powerful laser at the xanthorium clusters. Destroying thousands of crystals that all exploded. After it was done firing, the Robeast scanned multiple areas around the cluster again. And this time, it got a reading. Spotting the wormhole on its scanners, it started moving towards it.
"I think he knows we're here," Hunk said, waiting for Shiro's command.
"Hold…" Shiro said, waiting for the Robeast to attack again. Waiting to see if it really knew they were there.
Charging its main cannon again, the Robeast fired another blast at the Castle of Lions. Marcus' eyes widened, and he moved out of the way of the laser. Going through the wormhole, it grazed against the hull of the castle. Multiple shots were fired from the Robeast, but they all missed.
"Direct hit! He definitely knows we're here!" Coran shouted.
"Get the particle barrier up!" Allura shouted. Coran did just that, but it wasn't over from there. The Robeast charged another attack by pulling in more clusters.
"He's readying another attack!"
And then things got worse when the ship itself was being pulled in.
"He's pulling us in as well! Paladins, I think it's time to launch!" Allura said.
"Form Voltron!/Standby for Titanfall!" Shiro and Marcus shouted at the same time.
When the Robeast was about to fire off another attack, Voltron appeared from the space pocket with Marcus and RC on its shoulder. The ultimate weapon punched the Robeast square in the face. Knocking it back right as it fired. It hit more of the xanthorium clusters.
As the crystals were destroyed, it knocked out the space generated that was powering the space pocket. Pulling the Castle of Lions and the Blade of Marmora's based out of the pocket.
"We're exposed!" Allura gasped. "The space fold has been lowered!"
Marcus was holding onto the left eyebrow of the Robeast, Burst Core activated and was mag dumping high-powered rounds into the Robeast. When they started breaking through yellow eyes and Marcus shot into the robot, it let out an anguished roar before knocking him off.
Once he stabilized RC in space, something sped past his Titan at top speed. Marcus saw it was a ship. "What was that?"
"It's Ulaz. He's making his escape." RC told her Pilot.
"Well, there goes Ulaz," Coran stated condescendingly.
"I knew we should never trust a Galra!" Allura hissed.
Marcus bit the inside of his cheek. Knowing what Allura was feeling. He thought he could trust the guy. His attention was turned back to the battle at hand as Voltron punched the Robeast multiple times in the face. He fired at it and launched missiles. The Arc Rounds slammed into the body of the Robeast, and the missiles knocked it back.
Voltron flew towards the Robeast with RC following behind the massive robot. "Let's light this thing up," Shiro said. "Fire lasers!"
Voltron fired lasers from the Green and Red Lion as RC's chaingun unleashed its hail of energy powered shells and multiple robots. All attacks landed on the Robeast, pushing it back. But that's all that happened. As the dust cloud settled from the missile explosions, the Robeast turned around and opened its mouth. Sucking in more of the crystals.
"He's pulling in more ammo!" Pidge yelled.
Just then, the Robeast turned towards Voltron and RC. Ready to fire another laser.
"Move, move, move!" The two robots split up, dodging the laser, and flew away from it. The Robeast zigged zagged its aim from Voltron to RC. Trying to hit them. However, all it hit were more crystals that exploded. The explosion knocked Voltron back as well as Marcus.
Alarms blared inside of RC's cockpit as Marcus gripped the controls tightly. His knuckles turning white from his grip before finally stabilizing the Titan.
Hearing more explosions, Marcus turned, and his eyes widened with horror when he saw Voltron being sucked towards the Robeast. "Hang on, guys!" Marcus yelled, heading towards the Robeast while firing RC's armament. This knocked the Robeast back again. It closed its mouth and turned away from Voltron.
When it faced RC, it opened its mouth.
"Uh, oh," Marcus whispered.
RC flew away from the Robeast at the moment it fired. Twisting, diving, looping, anything to avoid the laser as the xanthorium behind her when up in explosions. When the laser stopped, Marcus turned back around. The Robeast tried to suck him in, but he flew out of the way before it could.
"Damnit! How do we stop this thing!?" Marcus yelled as he diverted power to RC's shields.
"We just got to keep some distance between us and that Robeast!" Shiro shouted over the intercom as the Robeast turned towards them.
The enemy robot flew over the cluster and started rapid firing at the Titan and Voltron. Both robots tried weaving and flying out of the way of the attacks. But the explosions caused by the crystals that were hit tossed Voltron and RC back and forth. Consuming them as the Robeast flew towards the cluster.
But then Voltron, which RC holding onto its shoulder, flew out of the explosion. Marcus grunted in his seat as the hull of the cockpit shook. But thankfully, he and RC were unharmed. However, the relief didn't last, as the Robeast opened its mouth and started attempting to suck it and RC back into it.
"It's trying to pull us in again!" Hunk yelled as he and Lance tried to use their trust. Holding onto Voltron's shoulder, Marcus fired on the Robeast again. But the Robeast didn't respond.
"I'm burning thrusters at full capacity, and it's not making any difference!" Lance shouted.
As Voltron got closer, a laser was fired at the Robeast, hitting it and knocking it back. The explosion sent Voltron and RC back before they stopped. Marcus looked back and saw the castle coming to their aid.
"Is everyone all right?" Allura asked from the bridge of the castle. A holoscreen of Lance popped up on her screen.
"Alive, yes. All right, no." Lance said.
Suddenly the castle was engulfed in a purple glow as the Robeast started sucking in the ship. Crystals surrounding the ship hit against the barrier and exploded.
"It's going for the Castle!" Marcus yelled.
"We need some way to stop its tractor beam!" Pidge yelled.
"I've got an idea. Pidge, form shield!" Shiro ordered. Marcus got off the giant robot and watched as the wings from Voltron's back flew off and came back together to form its shield. Marcus followed Voltron as it flew towards the Castle and the Robeast. "We can use the shield to block the beam!"
Voltron shoved the shield into the Robeast's mouth and then punched the shield, sending the monster robot back with its beam blocked. Marcus fired again, tearing into the Robeast but not doing enough to put it out of commission.
"We stopped the beam. Now, what?" Keith asked.
"Now, we killed this bastard!" Marcus retorted, loading another mag of Arc Rounds into his chaingun. He was about to fire again when his Titan interrupted him.
"Pilot, I recommend we take it out by using the xanthorium clusters," RC said to her Pilot, placing red circles on the crystals that were in front of them.
"You guys get the Robeast in position, and I'll take care of the rest!" Marcus said, deploying the missile pods on RC's back.
Voltron grabbed the Robeast by their shield, pushing it to steer the beast into doing a turnaround. The Robeast struggled to try and break free. Marcus locked onto some as many crystal clusters that his targeting system allowed just as Voltron pushed the beast towards a giant cluster. It's shield returned to its owner. The Titan then fired its missiles. The Robeast hits the giant cluster just as the missiles hit their targets.
The result was a massive explosion that rocket everyone in their Titan, Lions, and inside the castle. Marcus sighed with relief. It was finally over.
But then RC's alarms started going off. "Be advised! The enemy is still alive!" RC said.
And it proved to be true when the Robeast fired another laser beam. RC whipped behind the Voltron as it raised its shield. The laser blasted Voltron back into RC, sending the Titan and giant robot back from the incredible force. The team yelled out at the force of the attack.
"Why wouldn't you die!" Marcus shouted at the Robeast.
"The shield can't handle this much power!" Pidge announced as Voltron continued being pushed back from the laser. Just as the laser dispersed, the shield flung apart, and Voltron and RC flew back out of control. The Robeast followed after and then opened its mouth.
The inside of RC's cockpit shook violently as Marcus and Voltron were caught in the tracer beam. Marcus turned the power of the thrusters up all the way, but it wasn't enough. Not even Voltron's thrusters helped get out of the beam.
"We might not be strong enough to beat this thing!" Hunk exclaimed worriedly as he popped on the Pilot's screen.
"If anyone's got an idea, now's the time to share it!" Marcus yelled, ready to fire again.
"Hang on!" shouted a familiar voice on the intercom.
"Ulaz?" Shiro shouted with wide eyes. Marcus turned to see a ship flying towards them, and a zoom screen showed that it was indeed Ulaz.
"I'm going to take it down from the inside!" Ulaz said as he flew past Voltron. Heading straight for the Robeast.
"That's suicide!" Marcus protested.
"Ulaz, no! Let us handle this!" Shiro pleaded with the Galran, trying to reason with him.
"Voltron is too valuable. The universe needs you." Ulaz said. He piloted the ship towards the Robeast at full speed. As the others watched helplessly, Ulaz let go of the control and closed his eyes. The fate of the universe rested on Voltron and the Titan. That human that he saved long ago brought something that was lost even to the Blade of Marmora for a long time.
He will gladly die, knowing that hope will live on.
Marcus watched from the cockpit as Ulaz's ship plummeted into the maw of the Robeast. He sighed sadly as the enemy slammed its mouth shut and reeled back.
The Robeast hesitated for a moment before it's booster burst to life. Heading towards Voltron and RC. The giant took a defensive stance, and Marcus aimed the Chaingun.
"Let's finish this," Marcus growled. For Ulaz.
But then the booster flickered and stopped working. To Marcus' surprise, it started seizing up and went stiff. Turning in different directions and opening its mouth before shutting it immediately after. Suddenly it's arms started shrinking, crushing into the head.
"Ulaz opened up the space pocket from inside!" Pidge shouted, realizing the Robeast was experiencing a fold rupture. "It's falling in on itself!"
The team watched as it continued folding in on itself. Crushing its body until it completely imploded in on itself. Then out of nowhere, there was an explosion of purple light. But it wasn't a violent one. It was soft and quiet as it left a gap in the xanthorium crystals.
"He did it!" Hunk exclaimed with a smile.
"Ulaz saved us," Keith added.
"He's gone," Shiro stated sadly.
Back on the Castleship, Keith and Marcus entered into another room where Shiro was. Their leader was standing in front of a large window as he stared out at the xanthorium.
"Sorry we doubted Ulaz, Shiro. He saved all our lives," Keith said. Marcus walked over to stand next to the older man, crossing his arms and staring out at the window with him. Keith remained behind Shiro.
"I still have so many questions," The new Black Paladin said, furrowing his eyebrows. Marcus heard the door open and turned to see it was Allura. Seeing the Paladins were still mourning the death of Ulaz caused Allura to furrow slightly.
"Do you think Zarkon is really tracking us?" Keith asked Shiro.
"We cannot know for sure," Allura said, gaining the attention of the others. "Only Ulaz knew our whereabouts."
"You don't really think Ulaz gave us up?" Shiro questioned the princess, turning to the side to look at the princess. He looked at her with confusion and anger.
"Allura. I understand that you don't trust the Galra," Marcus said, walking over to her as he talked in a tone that was both sympathetic but also stern. "Not after the atrocities that they've done. But after today, after all that we've learned, can you really look me in the eyes and tell me that every Galra is evil like Zarkon. Ulaz gave his life thinking he just saved Voltron and the universe. We should all be so lucky."
Allura looked surprised by his words before looking down, and her eyes hardened. "Yeah!" Keith agreed, rounding on Allura. "Maybe Zarkon found out about this place on his own. He's probably been searching for the Blade of Marmora."
Allura didn't meet their gaze for a moment before looking up. "It's clear the loss of Ulaz has caused you great concern, but, regardless of how Zarkon located us, we cannot stay here any longer. It isn't safe."
"We should meet up with the rest of Ulaz's group, finish what we started," Keith suggested.
"Not with Zarkon tracking us," Marcus said before turning to Shiro."Shiro, our best course now is to find a way to figure out how Zarkon is tracking us. We can't risk losing the only allies we have in this war."
AN: Good God, this was such a slog to get through. From school work getting in my way to writer's block. Not going to lie, I've been thinking of stopping "Become ONE" for a while, but hopefully, it doesn't come to that. I don't want to stop working on this story. I like this story!
Thank you very much for reading. "Become ONE" will return. Please be sure to Favorite and Follow if you like the story, and also Review it. If you have any questions or discussions, you'd have for me, then please in a Review or a PM me.
Thank you for reading. May God bless you, and have a wonderful day.